


Take a Chance

by Gamma_Orionis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: polybigbang, F/M, M/M, Multi, Past Abuse, Polyamory, Romance, Sexual Content, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-27
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:45:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamma_Orionis/pseuds/Gamma_Orionis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood are the perfect couple - better than the perfect couple. Theodore Nott is just their dark, brooding friend and he doesn't even know why they want him to be that. But then they show up at his flat with the suggestion that he ought to be more than just their friend, and Theo can't help but wonder whether they're playing some sort of trick on him. He can't possibly imagine two people loving him when no one's ever loved him at all before.  Written for polybigbang</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Couture_Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Couture_Girl/gifts).



> Art here, by delugedpapercup: <http://delugedpapercup.livejournal.com/5512.html>
> 
> This story is dedicated to [Couture Girl](http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2270025/Couture-Girl), Queen of Theo Writing, who made me fall in love with the idea Theo/Luna/Draco. I've borrowed several aspects of Theo's backstory from her works, so I'd also like to thank her for answering questions about her head!canon for him.

Theo couldn't help being jealous every time he saw Draco and Luna together.

They were  _perfect_  – the perfect couple in every way that the perfect couple could have been defined. They didn't fight – Draco had once confided that he didn't even know  _how_  to fight with Luna. Luna was, according to Draco, an extremely exciting bed mate. They even looked alike, both pale and blonde haired and grey–eyed.

_Not fair at all._

Theo did not have a girlfriend. He had slept with Pansy Parkinson a few times, on–and–off over their Hogwarts years and the time immediately following that. Theo had fancied that they might get married eventually, but Pansy had run off with Daphne Greengrass of all people, and good riddance to her. She was a stupid, stuck–up bitch of a girl, really, and Theo had no time for her.

_He just wished that Luna and Draco had time for him._

He had gotten a flat close to Malfoy Manor and he tried to spend all the time that he possibly could with them, but the more time he spent hanging about their home, the more he worried that they were thinking that he was strange and co–dependant and God only knew what else. The last thing that Theo  _ever_  wanted  _anyone_  to think about him was that he was co–dependent. He had put so much effort into making sure that he didn't depend on anyone else – that had been how he had gotten away from his father…

But he didn't like to think about that.

He did wonder, sometimes, whether Luna caught him staring longingly at the two of them and was too polite to mention it, or whether Draco did and wasn't sure what it meant.

Of course Draco wouldn't be sure what it meant.  _Theo_  wasn't even sure what it meant.

When he was feeling particularly defiant, particularly willing to tell himself that there was nothing wrong with what he felt, Theo thought that he was simply jealous that they had such a strong relationship when he was alone. When he was a little more introspective, he sometimes let himself admit that he found Luna rather attractive. And when he was entirely consumed in his own thoughts… at night, half-drunk, alone… then, sometimes he thought…

Ever since they had been in school together, Theo had, if nothing else, admired Draco. He had been proud to call him a friend. He had been proud to say that Draco Malfoy considered  _him_ a friend. He admired Draco's self–confidence, his brash ability to put his thoughts out to the world and not care what anyone said back to him, and the way he could always do it with a proud sneer and a sense of superiority… Theo admired that.

Those were, of course, qualities that Theo himself had never had. He was quiet and retiring, preferring to disappear into the shadows and brood rather than openly insult or even acknowledge other people. The way that Draco acted, so free of any ordinary inhibition, but controlled and able to focus his pride and self–confidence, had at once fascinated and almost intimidated Theo.

Luna was, in her way, not so very different. She would not insult anyone for anything but the crime of being narrow–minded – and that insult  _did_  come up from time to time, but she hardly went around accusing people of it – but she had the same sort of unbelievable ability as Draco to simply not care what anyone else thought. Or perhaps, rather, the better explanation was that she didn't care if anyone thought unpleasant things about her. She beamed like anyone else when she was complimented, just as Draco swelled with pride when he was acknowledged, but if someone told her that she was stupid, or too old to believe in fairy tales, she brushed it off without giving it a second thought as easily as Draco did so when someone called him arrogant or spoiled. Perhaps Luna  _was_  too old to believe in fairy tales, and it would have been difficult to really deny that Draco was arrogant, but those were qualities of their personalities that they would not apologize for.

Perhaps that shared sense of self–pride – open in Draco and implicit in Luna – was what had drawn them together.

It was certainly what drew Theo to them.

It was unfortunate, he thought, that they had found each other before he had ever had a chance to tell either of them how he felt about them.

He had been too nervous to ever tell Draco that he found him more attractive than any boy should find a  _friend_. He had never been able to find the words that wouldn't alienate Draco, wouldn't end in Draco sneering at him and telling him to piss off and find some other boy to fawn over. And Luna had been too shocking in her demeanour, too otherworldly for Theo to even know how to approach, much less for him to find it in himself to tell her that he was romantically interested in her.

He could talk to Luna now – carry on a coherent conversation and even make jokes in her presence – but it was a skill he had only acquired after she had moved in with Draco and they had become permanent fixtures in each other's lives, when all hopes of any sort of romantic relationship had been thoroughly dashed.

So Theo contented himself with friendship.

He tried not to think – not too often, at least – that he was only driving himself mad by allowing himself to form  _platonic_  relationships with them when he wanted something more than that so desperately.

But no matter how badly he wanted it, he refused to try to ruin what they had. It was better that he suffered than them.

_He was always the one who suffered._

One late winter afternoon, he was lying on his thin, hard bed – he had refused the inheritance that he would have received when his father died; he would never take anything that had anything to do with the man who had made his childhood such a misery – and considering matters of himself and Draco and Luna, when there was a knock upon the door of his flat.

"Just a minute!" he called, sitting up and quickly glancing in the mirror to be sure that he was presentable. He looked all right, he supposed, if not wildly well put–together. But that hardly mattered – everyone who came to his flat was either someone who had seen him in a worse state than this before or someone who didn't really matter.

He opened the door and managed a smile when he saw Draco and Luna standing there.

"Hello!" Luna said brightly, and Draco nodded, acknowledging Theo, who held the door open for them. Luna was wearing a pair of very bulky boots that looked like they were made out of some kind of thick canvas and painted with bright splashes of colour, and she stamped the snow off of them before she came in. The bulkiness firmly offset the long coat she was wearing, which hung right to the tops of the boots and which Theo was quite sure had once been Narcissa Malfoy's. He thought that he had seen her wearing it when she had picked Draco up from Platform 9 ¾ sometime when they were young. Her arms were wrapped around her torso as if protecting herself from cold, but she wasn't shivering, despite her lack of gloves, scarf or hat.

"Been well, Theo?" Draco asked, stepping in and putting one arm around Luna's shoulders and reaching out with the other to clap Theo lightly on his shoulder. Theo winced automatically but didn't pull back.

"Not bad. Do you want something to drink?"

"Tea, please," Luna said. She was still hugging herself and Theo wondered briefly if she was hurt.

"Yeah… all right, I'll put a kettle on." He indicated that they should follow him into the kitchen, then pointed his wand at a kettle, which immediately filled with water and started to steam and whistle. "What sort of tea?"

"Any sort you have," Draco said and Theo turned away from him, making himself busy with tealeaves and cups. They were silent –  _strangely_  silent – until he turned back and handed them their tea.

"Thanks." Draco gave him a small nod and Luna simply smiled her beautiful, beatific smile and took the cup, sipping it while keeping her free arm wrapped tightly around her torso.

"Is… something wrong?" Theo asked. He sat down across from them, glancing from one to the other. "I didn't expect you. I don't mind, of course, but you usually send a letter if you're planning to drop by…"

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Luna told him. He looked at her questioningly and when she didn't say anything more, he looked at Draco.

"Wanted what to be a surprise?"

Draco hesitated, taking a sip of his tea and not looking at him. "You're supposed to tell him, Luna. I don't know how to explain."

"What's happened?" Theo was instantly alert. "What's wrong? Is one of you sick? What can I do? Tell me right now!"

"No, it's nothing like that," Luna assured him. "We're both fine. We're both very good, actually."

"Well, then…?"

"Well, you see," Luna said, looking at Theo with a very serious expression, "Draco and I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. About a lot of things."

"What… sort of things? Are you pregnant?" he added quickly, glancing at Luna's stomach. Was she dressed in the coat and keeping her arms folded to disguise a bump? He tried to imagine Luna pregnant and couldn't do it. He could imagine her with children, though…

"No," Luna said, shaking her head. "I don't want any children right now. I'm too young to be a mother, I think."

"You would be a very good mother," Theo told her quickly.

"Thank you." She beamed at him. "But I'm not pregnant. It's about you, Theo."

He looked at them warily. This, he thought, could  _only_  be bad. Perhaps they had caught him staring a few too many times and were tired of it. Perhaps they thought that he was too moody to keep imposing on their happiness and they wanted him to leave them alone.

"What… what about me?"

"We'd like you to move in with us," Luna told him.

"Pardon me?"

"You know," she said, looking a little surprised that he hadn't understood. "We'd like you to move into Malfoy Manor with us. We think that would be really lovely for all of us. Of course, if you're very attached to this flat…"

"He's not," Draco interrupted. He wrinkled his nose, looking around. "It's…  _eugh_."

Theo glanced around. Part of him wanted to make a feeble protest, wanted to say that his house wasn't that bad and that Draco ought to keep his mouth shut until he had tried to find a decent place without his father's money, but he couldn't quite muster up the energy. After all, he was right.

"So… you want me to move into Malfoy Manor with you?"

"Yes, that's what I said." Luna nodded. "Would you like to?"

"Well… I…"  _Yes. Yes, I would like to move into Malfoy Manor with you. I would like to live with you both and I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you_. "Why?"

"Because we love you very much," Luna said. The way she said it – so earnest, so weirdly sincere – made Theo do a double take. If she had said it more lightly, or if Draco had said it, he would have assumed that by  _love_  they meant  _care about and want you in our lives_. But when Luna said it in that strangely serious way that she had, Theo couldn't help but assume that she meant…  _love_.

"Good job at breaking it to him gently, Luna," Draco said, rolling his eyes, then he looked to Theo, who was staring at him and Luna with a perplexed expression.

"I… pardon me?" Theo said, blinking at them. It had to be some sort of joke – or perhaps he simply didn't understand the meaning. Luna was free with her emotions under most circumstances and perhaps she simply meant that she… that she was fond of him and wanted to share her home with him. Perhaps she meant that…

"We love you," Luna told him. "We've talked about it a lot and we both love you very much and we'd like you to live with us."

"Draco," Theo said, looking at his friend rather helplessly. "What's she talking about?"

Theo had never seen Draco look so awkward. He shifted in his seat and looked at his hands and finally took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Luna thinks–" he began, then quickly amended when Luna gave him a sharp look, "Luna  _and I_  think that you should… erm…" His face was rather flushed and he looked at Luna helplessly.

"We think you should live with us," Luna said. The way she was talking made it sound like she thought she was explaining something incredibly simple. "Like Draco and I live together. You would live with us too."

"I… I don't understand what you're… getting at…"

"If you don't want to," Draco said quickly, "you really don't have to. We wouldn't want to pressure you or anything like that…"

"Do you not want to?" Luna interrupted. She leaned over the table a little, examining Theo with an intense stare. "Do you not want to come live with us?"

"I…"

And what was he supposed to say to that? Was he supposed to turn down an offer from his closest friend and his girlfriend to leave the grotty little flat that was his home and move into one of the most extravagant and well–kept manors in the country? How did he say no to that? And how could he say no to an offer of –  _if he was reading Luna and Draco right_  – some sort of relationship?

"I… it's very kind of you," he said carefully. " _Very_  kind of you," he added. "A very… very good offer."

"Yes," Luna agreed. "It is, rather, isn't it?"

"But… I don't understand  _why_."

"Why?" Luna blinked at him. Draco was pointedly looking everywhere but at him. "I thought I already explained that. We love you, Theo."

"Luna, you know…" Draco sounded very uncomfortable. "You know that most people don't say things like that?"

"But I do." There was no hint of shame in Luna's voice and she set her cup of tea down. "And anyhow, Draco and I discussed this already, and I thought you might need something to calm you down a little and help you understand the sort of thing that we'd do once you were living with us, so…" She stood up and held out her arms, and the coat she was wearing slid off of her.

Theo stared.

She wasn't wearing anything underneath.

He had thought about what Luna would look like naked before, of course – how could he not have? She wasn't particularly modest with her body and he often felt like if he craned his neck in just the right direction or if he came over to Malfoy Manor unexpectedly on a warm day, he would have a good chance of catching sight of her body, but he never actually had.

She looked absolutely beautiful.

She was thin, but pleasantly round in her stomach and thighs. There was a soft, slightly childish quality to her build, like her body hadn't fully developed yet, and Theo wanted to run his hands over her smooth, pale skin and pull her close to him and kiss her…

He looked at Draco, who was looking at him very seriously.

"Do you mind this?" he asked. "Do you mind Luna acting… like this?"

"Like what?" asked Luna. She still had her arms out and Theo thought that if she hadn't been wearing those ridiculous, bulky boots, she would have looked like a painting plucked straight from the portfolio of some great Renaissance master. She looked, Theo thought, as though Leonardo da Vinci had left a drawing of Venus lying in his studio and a trickster had snuck in to paint boots on her.

"Would you like to go to your bed, Theo?" Luna asked. "Or would you prefer to do it here?"

"Do– do what?" he stammered.

"Have a threesome, of course."  _As if the answer should have been obvious._

"If he's comfortable with that!" Draco interrupted quickly. "If you're comfortable with that, Theo – we don't have to." His cheeks were quite red and he looked like he wanted to tell Luna to put her coat back on.

"I…"

His mouth was dry. He couldn't talk. He couldn't even think – couldn't think anything except  _Luna Lovegood and Draco Malfoy – how can they even_ need _to ask whether I want a threesome_?

He nodded. "I… want… to… I suppose."

Luna beamed. "Your bed or here?"

"Bed… I suppose." His brain was numb. He couldn't think at all.

"Come on, then." She held her hand out and he took it, barely able to register what he was doing. Part of him was thinking that this had to be a joke, some sort of wildly elaborate scheme to… give him a present, perhaps, or maybe just fuck with his mind…

But Luna certainly wasn't acting like it was a trick – and come to that, Draco wasn't either. He was following them into the bedroom, looking just as genuinely pleased about the situation as Luna clearly was, though the signs in him were more subtle than Luna's wide smile and bouncing step.

Luna put one hand on Theo's shoulder, gently guiding him so that he was sitting on the bed, then turned to Draco and kissed him hard. Her hand slipped down his chest and she quickly, skilfully, flicked the buttons of his shirt open. The way she did it made her look practiced, as though she had done this a hundred thousand times before – which, Theo reminded himself, she probably had. Draco knotted his fingers in her hair and then slid them down her back, kissing her fiercely while she pushed the shirt off of him, and for a moment, Theo wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He hadn't ever participated in a threesome before – was he meant to watch them? Join in? How?

But before he had come to any sort of conclusion, Luna had gotten Draco's shirt off, kicked off her own boots, then crawled onto the bed. She seemed to know what she was doing, which shouldn't have been any surprise, really – Luna had often said – and Draco had often said about Luna – that she liked to experiment and didn't even think of sex as the slightest bit taboo. She'd probably had plenty of threesomes before.

_But hadn't ever invited someone she was having a threesome with to come and live with her._

She kissed him and her lips felt warm and slightly swollen. She stroked his chest slowly, popping his buttons with as much ease as she had Draco's, but as much as Theo enjoyed that – and  _oh_ , he did enjoy it – it was nothing compared to the pleasure mixed with surprise that filled him when he felt a second pair of hands on his belt.

Draco smiled at him – a small, slightly cheeky little smirk – while he undid his belt. A flush went through Theo's body in response and the muscles in his legs and stomach clenched.

_Oh, how many times had he thought about this, thought about Draco…_

Luna slipped his shirt off and kissed his chest lightly, just below his collarbone. "You can touch us if you want, you know, Theo," she whispered and he hesitated before cupping one of her small, pert breasts in his hand. It felt so warm and soft and  _perfect_ …

And then Draco's hand wrapped around his cock.

He hadn't been expecting that, not in the slightest. He had frankly expected Draco –  _Draco, the very epitome of charming male heterosexuality_ – to undo his trousers and then step back and let Luna do the rest of the work. It had surprised him that Draco had even undone his trousers but he had been able to justify it in his mind as  _him just being helpful_. When Luna had said _threesome_ , Theo had imagined himself on one side of Luna and Draco on the other, fucking her and having little contact with each other except a hand or arm brushing the other one while they caressed her.

He liked this a lot more.

Draco pulled his cock slowly, running his hand over the length and squeezing with a surprising degree of certainty as to how to touch him.

_Just how many other people have you done this to?_

"Mmm…" Luna moaned softly, taking Theo's other hand and putting it on her other breast. "Touch me, please."

He squeezed her softly and she groaned, letting her head fall back and her long, fair hair stream down her back, but Theo was half watching her and half watching Draco as he stroked him, and then finally leaned down between his legs and took the head of his cock into his mouth.

"Oh!"

He bucked automatically against Draco and his hands tightened on Luna's breasts, eliciting another moan from her. She twined her arms around his neck and threw her head back, her pale hair streaming down her back. With some increased confidence, Theo pulled her nipples experimentally, and a flush of colour rose in her cheeks.

"That feels…  _so_  good, Theo…" she moaned, and she sounded absolutely delighted.

Draco moaned as well, sending vibrations through Theo's lower body, then he lifted his head, crawling onto the bed beside them. He ran his hands slowly up Theo's chest, then leaned over him to catch Luna's mouth with his. He kissed her fiercely, and one of his hands moved next to Theo's, kneading her breast.

Luna tossed her head and arched her back. She shifted on the bed and fell back onto the pillows with her legs spread wide, then looked up at Theo and Draco.

Draco groaned quietly. His eyes were cloudy with lust and Theo could only imagine that his own looked the same. But Luna's eyes were bright and clear and she was looking at the boys almost expectantly.

Theo leaned forward automatically to touch her, but Draco caught him by his shoulders and turned him around.

"Wha–" Theo began, but Draco silenced him with a deep kiss.

Theo's body tensed up automatically. Draco's kiss was firm and confident, his tongue steady as it slipped between his lips and explored Theo's mouth. He heard Luna give a contented sigh, but he didn't think anything of that. He was distracted – entirely distracted – by Draco's arms wrapping around him, and by the swell of his erection against his thigh.

"You've got no idea how long I've wanted to do that for," Draco mumbled, pulling away just a little so that his lips barely brushed against Theo's. Theo blushed and Draco's eyes gleamed as he leaned back and started to undo his own trousers.

Theo turned his attention back to Luna. She had slid one hand down between her legs and was stimulating herself with one fingertip while she looked at the boys. When she saw Theo looking, she lifted her hand away from herself. Her juices glistened enticingly on her thighs.

"Touch me, Theo," she whispered. She reached out and grasped Theo's wrist, pulling his hand forward and pressing it between her legs. She felt  _so_  good,  _so_  wet and slick…

Theo slid one finger tentatively over her clit and when she moaned happily, he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger. She arched off the bed with a gasp of delight and Theo, encouraged, rubbed it harder.

He felt Draco's arms twine around him from behind, and his hand wrap around his cock again. He jerked it back and forth, and Theo could not have helped rocking his hips against Draco's hand if he had tried.

And he certainly wasn't going to try.

Luna sat up and grasped at Theo's shoulders. Her face was slick with sweat, tendrils of hair clinging to her cheeks and forehead.

"I want–" she began, but then broke off and just pushed him down onto his back. She was surprisingly powerful, or perhaps lust was lending her strength, for barely had Theo hit the blankets when she was on top of him, straddling him.

Theo had barely registered what was happening by the time he felt her body sinking down around him.

He knotted his hands in the blankets, trying not to writhe too much. Luna looked  _so_  good bouncing on top of him, her hair all over the place and her breasts bouncing up and down while she rode him.

Draco had slid out from behind Theo and he laid another firm, passionate kiss against his lips before he moved behind Luna. He put one hand on her back and pushed her forward so that she was leaning down over Theo, who groaned at the shift in position. Then Luna let out a fresh moan, louder, and Theo felt a new pressure against his cock.

"Oh,  _Draco!_ " Luna cried, and Theo, craning his neck, could see Draco pumping his fingers slowly in and out of her ass.

He could have come on the spot.

He had to squeeze his eyes shut and dig his fingernails into his palms to keep control, and even that was just barely enough when he felt Luna tighten around him and heard her and Draco groan in unison. He barely dared to open his eyes and look at what they were doing.

Draco was behind Luna, who had leaned forward and braced herself with one hand over Theo. She was using the other hand to spread herself open, and Draco was slowly, steadily, pushing inside her.

Theo could feel Draco's cock pressing against his, Luna's body stretching to accommodate both of them.

Theo couldn't take it.

He felt his balls pull tight against his body and for just an instant, he tried desperately to hold on, but he couldn't do it, and a loud moan escaped his lips as he bucked desperately and felt himself spill inside Luna.

She gasped and he saw her mouth open in a silent moan through vision blurred with pleasure. She grabbed his hand and pressed his fingers against her clitoris while Draco thrust into her with steadily increasing speed.

It felt like only seconds before Luna screamed with delight, and he felt a rush of hot liquid spill over his hand and stomach. Draco groaned just seconds later, and then both of them collapsed forward, heaving and trembling on the bed, half on top of Theo.

They lay still for several long moments, all of them enjoying the afterglow, then Luna whispered, "So, why don't you pack up and come home with us?"


	2. Chapter 2

It felt to Theo like it took him an embarrassingly short amount of time to gather together his possessions. The flat he was living in had come with some sparse furniture – the bed, the kitchen table, a bookcase – and he had never bothered to decorate it properly. He hadn't been able to see the point. But he thought that it ought to take a little longer than ten minutes to throw everything he owned into suitcases. Draco and Luna waited for him while he went around his tiny excuse for a bedroom – Luna had suggested that they should help, but Theo had turned her down. He wanted to be on his own. He needed to think.

It all seemed far, far too good to be true. Theo had lusted after Draco and he had lusted after Luna, and if one of them came to tell him that their relationship with the other had ended and they wanted to be with him, he would have been able to believe it. It might have been near enough to a miracle, but it would have been one that he could except, not  _like this_.

The only cases that Theo had ever heard of in which a romantic relationship – any sort of romantic relationship – involved more than two people were harems in which one man had many wives that he used for sex as he pleased. Theo shivered – what a revolting thought. His father had talked more than once about wanting a harem like that, and though Theo  _thought_  that it had all been in jest, it had always made his mother cry…

But this wasn't like that at all. There were two men and only one woman and somehow, Theo couldn't quite imagine Luna wanting to keep him and Draco locked up for the exclusive purpose of having sex with her.

So if it wasn't like a harem, which it  _wasn't_ , how was he meant to reconcile himself to the idea that he was going to be… to be  _added on_  to the relationship of a couple? Surely he would feel useless, feel like an outcast who was only imposing on them. They had been together for so long and were so perfectly suited to each other that he could not imagine coming in and forcing himself into that relationship…

But they had been the ones to suggest it, so they  _must_  have known how it would work. It wasn't as though he had done anything to force them into it, so, if they had done it out of their own free will, they must have had good reason.

That was the only way that Theo could explain it to himself. They had to know how it would work because they had made it clear that they thought it  _would_  work.

And what would they do? Would they just go about the house all day having threesomes and kissing each other? That would surely be a tiring existence… even if it was one to which Theo was not  _entirely_  opposed…

He emptied the last drawer of his dresser into his suitcase and forced it closed. It bulged out rather unattractively in places, but it was good enough. He didn't need it to look good, he just needed it to hold his possessions, and it would have been useless to pack another one and have each one only half full.

Draco and Luna were still sitting at the table when Theo finished packing and heaved his three suitcases over to them. Luna had put her coat on again, though it was hanging off her, leaving her breasts and stomach exposed, and Draco was lying across two chairs with his head in Luna's lap. They looked almost uncannily comfortable with each other. Theo's own parents had certainly never sat like that with each other. His father would have given his mother a slap if she dared reveal anything of her body for any reason besides the express purpose of pleasing him.

"Are you done already?" Luna asked and Theo looked away when he nodded.

"I don't really… have much."

"Do you want to talk to your landlord now, to tell him you're moving out?" Luna asked, and he shook his head.

"I'll tell him later," he said. Telling his landlord would make this all far too serious, far too real, and Theo wasn't yet quite sure that he could make that sort of commitment to this. There was a part of him that still, even now, even after they had assured him over and over again that they meant every word of what they were saying, even after he had packed up all his earthly belongings with the express intention of leaving, even after he had slept with them, for God's sake, thought that he might have somehow managed to misunderstand the whole situation. There was no way that it could be this easy and this perfect...

"Let's go, then," Draco said. He sat up and held out his hand. Theo handed him the lightest of the three suitcases, a slight flush on his cheeks. It was strange to be so businesslike – so much like they had always been – after he had gone to bed with Draco and his girlfriend... it was all so very strange.

"You are ready, aren't you, Theo?" Luna asked him. She looked at him with an expression of intense concentration, as if trying to look into the very depths of his soul, which, Theo thought, Luna was probably not only actually trying to do, but very much capable of doing. She certainly looked like she was doing it. She looked as if she understood every strange thought that was running through his head to absolute perfection.

He hoped that he was wrong in that interpretation of her appearance. He didn't want anyone knowing his thoughts.

"Yes. I'm ready."  _As ready as I'll ever be._

"Come on, then," she said brightly. She stood up and pulled the coat closed, crossing her arms once again over her chest. Draco looped his arm around her shoulder, then hooked his other arm – the one holding the suitcase – around Theo's elbow, and then the three of them Disapparated.

Malfoy Manor was as beautiful as Theo had ever seen it. He didn't know what he had expected – if, perhaps, he had expected that it would have somehow turned menacing just for his benefit – because he had never seen the manor in anything less than an absolutely perfect state. He smiled a bit at it, as if acknowledging a friend with a small nod.

"Let's get you to our room," Luna said. "You don't mind sharing with us, do you, Theo?"

Why, when there were this many rooms in the manor? Why did he have to share with them? Why couldn't he just be left to his own devices?

Because he was joining in the relationship, of course.

"You  _don't_   _mind_ , do you?" Luna repeated. She spoke a little more loudly, acting as if Theo might not have heard her instead of being unable to form an answer, which was what the situation was, of course. "We have a very nice room. A very large bed. Lots of space…"

"I don't mind," Theo told her. That couldn't have possibly been any further from the truth – he minded very much, for it all felt so strange and so unlike anything that he had ever heard of before – but he didn't mind for any of the reasons that Luna might have assumed. He wasn't concerned because he didn't want to share the relationship with them, he wasn't concerned because he thought that the room wouldn't be pretty or wouldn't be big enough…

He was just concerned because had never, ever, in his whole past, been anywhere near so intimate with anyone as they were suggesting he should be with them.

He had always retired to the corners, always turned away from human interaction, shunning it as a waste of his time and energy, but now he was being asked to commit to a real relationship – something far removed from what he could only crassly describe as the "fuck and run" dynamics of his only other romantic relationship, that which he had had with Pansy during their school years – with not just one but two people. How could he possibly have been expected to not be distressed by it. It was strange in every way he could think of.

"Good," Luna said brightly. She kicked off her boots and held out her hands for the suitcases. "I'll help you take these upstairs. Draco, why don't you go on and wait in the kitchen for us?"

Theo glanced at Draco, who seemed not at all concerned about his mostly–naked girlfriend going up to the bedroom with another man. If it had been Theo in Draco's position – the first boyfriend, the one who had practically staked a claim on Luna, he wouldn't have let her go anywhere with anyone while she was only wearing a coat that didn't even begin to hide anything.

But Draco just gave them a quick nod and turned away, heading downstairs as casually as if…

As if Luna had been dressed and she was taking him to the parlour to look for a book.

How could Draco help but be jealous? Theo was  _sure_  that if he had been in Draco's place, he wouldn't have wanted his girlfriend to walk another boy up to their bedroom… especially not when she was in a state of undress.

"You seem rather uncomfortable, Theo," she observed. "Are you all right? I certainly hope you are…"

"I'm fine," he lied quickly, and he didn't think that a more obvious lie had ever been told. It was practically embarrassing. He should have known better than to try to lie to Luna Lovegood anyhow – she could tell when people were lying. She was good at reading people, or, at any rate, she was significantly better than Theo himself was.

"No, you're uncomfortable." Luna heaved a sigh. "I had rather hoped that the sex would calm you down. It usually does, you know – most people feel a lot better after they have it. I'm sorry that it didn't work for you."

"I..." What was he meant to say to that? Having sex with her and Draco had been unbelievable at the time, mind–blowingly good, but every passing moment since they had gotten out of bed made the experience feel more and more uncomfortable in retrospect. It was like he had just had a fantasy fulfilled, that was it – a fantasy that he had never meant for anyone to know about, a fantasy that he was ashamed of, had somehow been found out and been fulfilled with, surely, the best of intentions. And that was all well and good – that was fantastic, in fact – but once the fulfilment of the fantasy was over, it left a hollow sort of twisting in Theo's stomach. He wondered how many other fantasies were obvious enough to the rest of the world that they were able to be fulfilled by people who, while they were his friends, he didn't even see very often. How was he meant to be comfortable with that.

"The sex was… very good," he said at last. He hoped that that would neither offend nor confuse Luna, though he had never known her to be offended by something that wasn't a direct jab against her opinions, nor had he ever known her to be confused, really. If she was confused by anything in the world, she had always done a rather spectacularly good job of hiding any confusion. But then, Luna could hide a lot of things…

Theo had thought that he was the one who was skilled at hiding his feelings, but he knew that Luna could put him to shame when the situation involved putting a brave face forward in the worst of circumstances. He had seen her in Malfoy Manor during the second war – not as often as Draco had seen her, and, he supposed, that was why Draco was so much closer to her than he was, but he had seen her often enough to be able to tell that she had a talent for pretending that everything was fine despite the worst of situations. Maybe she really was prone to thinking that everything was completely fine…

"If the sex was good, then why are you uncomfortable?" Luna asked. She pushed open the door of one of the bedrooms that lined the corridor and indicated that Theo should come in. "Surely, unless it was very bad and you don't want to offend us by telling us so, there isn't any reason to be uncomfortable."

"It's… complicated," Theo muttered. "I don't think I can explain it."

"I'm sure that you could explain it very well," Luna said thoughtfully. "But I suppose that you really don't want to, do you?"

_Damn right, I don't._

"That's... I suppose that's true,"

"All right," Luna said. She set down his suitcase. "I wouldn't want you to think that you have to tell us anything – and Draco wouldn't want you to think so either," she added. "But I do rather hope that someday you decide that you want to. It's nicer to tell your secrets to people who love you than to keep them locked up inside, don't you think?"

And again, she was going off with that matter of her and Draco loving him. Love was so very far from the right word, Theo thought, that it was almost laughable...

"Mmm," he said quietly, and Luna seemed satisfied by that response. Or, at least, she didn't ask anything more.

"I'm going to go down to the kitchen with Draco," she said after a moment. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed Theo quickly before turning to the door.

"Is Draco going to mind you kissing me?" he asked, and Luna turned back to him and shook her head.

"Of course he won't. Why would he?"

"Because… he's your boyfriend."

"You're my boyfriend too," Luna said simply. "I thought we made that clear when we had sex with you and you moved in with us. It isn't as if Draco has more right to me than you do."

Theo flushed. "But… surely– surely he's been your boyfriend longer and he deserves–"

"He doesn't deserve anything just because he's been here longer. I can have sex witho whoever I want, and I can kiss whoever I wan," Luna told him. She was acting so infuriatingly like this was all simple. "I love you both the same, you know, Theo. Just like he loves you and me just the same – I suppose he doesn't like to say it, but he does. Really, Theo. We can love more than one person at once, you know."

_All this going on about the details of love – can't you see that I don't understand you? Can't you see that I don't understand it at all?_

But he nodded and Luna smiled then skipped off, leaving him alone to his thoughts.

He sank down on his bed and buried his face in his hands. It was all so strange, all so very different from anything that he had experienced or even imagined before in his life. He had never thought that he might end up in– in a situation like  _this_. He had barely imagined one person who might love him, never mind two. And Draco, who he had spent his whole life pining after without even a shadow of hope that his feelings might be requited – and Luna, who he had been so sure was too far outside his world for him to even be able to understand, much less for him to be able to capture her affections…

He wondered how Draco and Luna had decided that they wanted him. He wondered how they had come to the conclusion that inviting him to live in their home – to essentially become equal with both of them instead of just being  _a friend_. How had  _that_  conversation happened?

He pictured how Luna might have suggested it – just sitting down to tea one day and saying  _you know, Draco, I think I'd like to have sex with you and Theo both_. Of course it would have been Luna who suggested it. Draco wouldn't have even dreamed of it if his precious girlfriend didn't think it up first. A tiny bubble of resentment pooled in Theo's stomach.

_How revolting – how_ stupid _– of him to have thought for a second that he might really have wanted him_.

And of course Luna would have made it all about loving two people the same way. Of course she would turn the fact that she wanted a threesome into some deep revelation about the human condition, because that was what Luna Lovegood did. She, simply by virtue of being herself, made the stupidest things seem profound and everyone fell for it, damnit. Theo was falling for it. He had let himself get roped into  _this_ …

He made himself sick.

He was so – so  _fucking_  stupid. His father had made it so clear, so many times that no one was ever going to love him and it was just damned pretentious of him to think otherwise. Thinking that one person might love him could be forgiven, but thinking that  _two_  people might  _both_  love him? He could practically hear his father snorting, hear him sneering,  _really, Theodore? You really believe that? I can hardly believe a boy as naïve as you could be my son!_

And then it would have all turned on his mother and his father would issue another accusation of infidelity – because  _of course_  a naïve boy  _couldn't_  be the son of a practical man; at least, that was his father's logic – and Theo would  _know_  that it was his fault because he was so  _stupid_ …

He clutched his head. A pounding headache was starting and he groaned, gritting his teeth to try to stop it from becoming any more forceful. He felt sick to his stomach and briefly wondered where the lavatory was.

But no. He wasn't sick enough to throw up. That was a physical reaction to a physical problem and he didn't have a physical problem. Not anymore. Not now that his father was dead and buried and couldn't ever hurt him again. All he had left were  _thoughts_ , and thoughts couldn't make him throw up.

He sank down onto the bed and covered his eyes with his hands. His stomach twisted unpleasantly but he breathed deeply and tried his best to keep himself from letting the sickness take over.

_I will not let him ruin me. I will not let my father ruin me._

He repeated it over and over in his mind, trying to steel himself against the thoughts that spoke with his father's voice. He tried to brush them away like Draco would. Like Luna would.

If this was all a trick and it was pretentious for Theo to think that two people – two people who he freely admitted to his mind that he loved – loved him back? Then what? What would happen to him because of it now that his father was gone? He would be humiliated, but he had been humiliated before and he knew how to hide it. That was his talent, his one real talent – pretending that he didn't care what other people said or thought of him. Pretending he didn't care what people did to him. He knew that he would be able to brush it off if it was a trick, and even if he couldn't really stop it from hurting, he could at least make it clear to Draco and Luna that he didn't care.

But he couldn't believe that Luna would be so spiteful. Draco, maybe – he could easily imagine Draco pulling this as a cruel prank upon someone that he didn't like. Harry Potter for example – pretending to fancy him and then scorning him for believing him would be something that Draco would certainly do to Harry Potter. Theo might have been his friend, but that didn't mean that he was above Draco's pranks. But Luna... Luna would never do such a thing. Luna was not malicious. Luna would only say things like she had said to Theo – only do things like she had done to Theo – if she really meant it. She wasn't a liar. She was an earnest girl, really, she was.

He had already accepted, in any case. He was already living with them. What was the point of going on any further in his mind about what their intentions might have been? he was only going to drive himself mad by doing it. It was a waste of his time...

He sat up and glanced in the highly decorated mirror that was sitting on top of the dressing table. The table itself was strewn with dry flowers – whether they were supposed to be dry or whether Luna had simply forgotten about them and they had died, he wasn't sure, but the effect was rather pretty and Victorian in either case.

It reminded him of his mother.

She had always kept dried flowers. She kept them in vases in her bedroom and pressed between the pages of her favourite books, the ones that his father would never read. She had once told Theo – who had been too young to understand what it meant that she was telling him that – that she thought the dry flowers were very like herself.

"They're dead, you see, Theo?" she said, twirling one brittle stem between her fingers. "They're dead and old and dried up, but they're still pretty. Aren't they pretty, dear, aren't they beautiful?"

He had glanced at her and nodded and then gone back to whatever stupid, useless thing he had been doing – reading some stupid children's book, maybe, or playing with one of the toys that his father spoiled him with when he wasn't shouting at him – and he had only noticed out of the corner of his eye that his mother wasn't moving, was just sitting in her armchair and staring at the dried flower in her hand, twirling it slowly between her fingers, around and around and around and around, spinning it and letting it spin and watching it with an intensity that frightened Theo now…

How had he not been able to see? How had he not been able to see, even as young as he was, what she meant when she said that the flowers were pretty and dead and that they were like her?

He stood up quickly and turned away from the dry flowers on the dressing table. They weren't like his mother's. Hers had been little understated things, violets and daisies and small, blood–red roses, but those flowers that Luna had were big and colourful and screamed Luna Lovegood, not Katherine Nott. They weren't tragic corpses like his mother's dead flowers had been – they were more like museum pieces. Old but still full of life.

He tried to think that.

But he couldn't stand to look at them, really. They sickened him. They made him want to die.

Want to die like his mother...

He rushed from the room and slammed the door behind him.

He would go downstairs and put on his brave face for Luna and Draco. He wouldn't let his darkness tint them – not when they had offered him so much by letting him live with them and not when they were so clearly so happy...

And they looked happy when he went down to the kitchen. Luna had taken off her coat and gotten dressed properly in a long blue dress that floated and fluttered with her every movement. Draco seemed entranced by her as she spoke quietly but animatedly to him. Theo hovered in the doorway, watching them.

They looked far too happy together.

It was uncanny.

He had seen them looking happy together before, of course. It was all they ever looked – either they both looked happy or Luna looked happy and Draco looked perplexed or they looked somewhere in between there, but this was different somehow, not quite the same as that was. This was more intimate and Theo could not help, despite all of Luna's protestations that they loved him just the same as they loved each other, feeling like he was intruding into domestic bliss where he was not wanted.

He was about to turn back, perhaps to wander the manor until one of them came to find him, but before he could go, Draco turned and saw him.

"Ah, Theo," he said, nodding to him. "Come on, sit down – Luna's just explaining about..." he turned to Luna and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"The Nargle infestation in the attic," Luna explained. She turned to Theo and Draco rolled his eyes just a little.

"If there are Nargles in the attic, they aren't exactly doing us any harm, are they?" he asked, and Luna stopped and frowned a little. She lowered her hands.

"I suppose not. That's why we shouldn't hurt them. But they don't belong in a place like this, really, Draco. You ought to know that. The might start to eat the wood."

"Why don't you go up and look for some?" Draco asked her. "Catch a few so you can show Theo, you know…"

"I will." Luna sounded a little bit huffy – perhaps slightly put out that Draco wasn't coming with her.

"That's all right," Theo said quickly. "I'll just–"

"No, no," Draco interrupted. "I wanted a word with you, Theo, actually."

"Oh..." Luna nodded, comprehension dawning on her face, and she stood up. "I'll leave you two to it, then. And Theo, when I come back down with the Nargles, you'd better be careful – they bite."

"Are Nargles real?" Theo asked when Luna had gone. He asked it in a hushed voice and felt a little bit odd for asking it because Luna had always seemed so passionate in her defence that they did exist and she had always been so angry at people who denied it.

Draco shrugged. "I've really no idea. I don't know what she's been doing, but she keeps saying that there are all sorts of magical creatures all over the house and then I tell her to catch some and she comes back with a box full. I don't know whether they're actually… Nargles," His mouth twisted a little as he said that. "Or whether they're something else entirely, but whatever they are, I'd rather have them out of the house. We ought to have gotten a house–elf a long time ago," he added, "but Luna would keep wanting to dress it up. And then, of course, we'd have to get a new one..."

"Mmm." For some reason, the image of Luna dressing up a mutinous–looking house–elf in an elaborate and doll–like costume flashed into Theo's mind and he couldn't help but grin. "Yeah. She probably would want to."

Draco nodded and there was a silence before Theo said, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"About... this, actually." Draco's shoulder lifted slightly in a small shrug. It was painfully obvious that he was trying as hard as he could not to let his feelings – whatever they were – show. Theo felt dreadfully uncomfortable. He wished that he had a drink so that he could take a sip and then pretend to be enthralled by the contents of the cup.

"Look," Draco said, "I know you've probably already gone over a dozen different reasons that things might be... like this. You know? Why we might want you to move in with us…"

"I have thought about it," Theo said. There was no point in denying that.

"And I'm sure that whatever you've thought up is a lot stranger than the truth."

"Probably."

"Look," Draco said, leaning forward. "You probably think this was Luna's idea and… well, obviously you'd be right. But it's not just… it's not as if she forced me into it or any such thing."

"I don't know that I could imagine her forcing you into anything," Theo said, trying to make a joke, but Draco looked deadly serious and shook his head.

"You've got no idea," he said. "She's bloody dangerous when she wants to be. If she wanted to convince me of something – really wanted to – she'd be able to do it."

Theo shivered a little. That sounded ominous.

"But she didn't force me into this," Draco continued. "Like… really, Theo, I would have thought that it would have been obvious that sooner or later, things would work out this way…"

"And why would I think that?"

"Why?" Draco snorted a little. "In case you hadn't noticed, Luna's a bit obsessed with you. She thinks you're just incredible. And I- well, good God, Theo, it's not like we're not friends."

" _Friends_  doesn't usually mean sharing a girlfriend."

"It doesn't usually." Draco shrugged. "Yeah, that's true. But in this case, it did. So, actually, Theo, I'd appreciate it if you didn't question it too much, because God knows, this is going to be weird enough without you expecting us to shout 'April fools' at any moment." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You think you can do that? Do you think you can actually believe us when we say that this isn't a trick?"

There was silence.

"Maybe," Theo said at last. "I'll… have to see how things go."

"Right," Draco mumbled. "Yeah. All right."

Another silence, tenser still than the last, then Draco spoke up.

"I really have fancied you for a while, you know, Theo. I certainly wasn't complaining about this when Luna brought it up. I thought… I thought it was a damn good idea, actually."

Theo swallowed, then looked at him and just barely managed to force the tiniest of smiles.

"Thanks," he said. He tried to sound casual, but his voice choked with emotion.

"And… you know… I think this can work out." Draco looked at him with a cautiously hopeful eye. "You know… if we try."

"Yeah." Theo nodded, swallowed, then said, "I… I reckon it's worth trying."


End file.
